Within a few months, reports on Twitter indicated the experiment had spread to San Francisco locations of the Philz Coffee chain.

In May, Cisco announced Facebook Wi-Fi would be included as an optional service on its Meraki line of routers. Facebook is in discussions with other router makers to get Facebook Wi-Fi adopted more broadly, according to Facebook mobile product manager Erick Tseng.

Buying licensed spectrum wholesale could be the next step. Both the 600 MHz and 2.6 GHz band are good candidates.

Google could sell more ads with free access and is projected to generate some $3.5 billion in mobile ad revenue next year. How much more ad revenue could they generate with “free” broadband wireless access? Google thinks there’s a $200 billion opportunity as brands shift to online.

A free solar charger/hotspot could provide information and downloads in multiple languages. If “free” service were only available to Comcast or AT&T customers the value (and competition) would be limited.

It will be interesting to see if the presumed FCC Chairman, Tom Wheeler, tries to block “free” broadband, in deference to his cable and cellular buddies. Perhaps he’ll play the “homeland security” card.